I was speaking about this grape variety today so I thought I would repost this article from some years ago. This week’s indigenous grape variety entry will be a short one because I could find very little information on this variety on the internet or in other sources. The variety, Cornarea Nero, hails from Piedmont in the North-West corner of Italy. It is a cross created by Giovanni Dalmasso in 1936 between Barbera and Nebbiolo. The idea was that is would be able to show the best characteristics of these typical Piemontese parents and add color to a wine. Just a refresher note on the difference between a cross and a hybrid: a cross is between two varieties of the same species, i.e. Vitis Vinifera while a hybrid, is between two different species say a Vitis Vinifera and a Vitis Lambrusca, native to America.